Mormons pro-choice?

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The GOP just approved the anti-abortion plank for its platform, which asserts that "the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed" ("GOP stands firm: no abortions, no exceptions" (Tribune, Aug. 22).

Since it doesn't grant exceptions for even rape, incest or the life or health of the mother, one can only conclude that Republicans value the potential life of a fetus more than that of a mother of four. So much for family values.

Many Mormon Republicans champion this plank, yet the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which condemns "elective abortion for personal or social convenience," is more compassionate and contradicts the platform: "Some exceptional circumstances may justify an abortion, such as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth."